During the early weeks of the Republican primaries, Rush Limbaugh made some prominent statements that if McCain won the nomination, he would destroy the Republican primary.
Let's look at what Rush was saying back in January.
I have a very conservative father who listens to Rush Limbaugh every day. He is older than McCain. I called him frequently during the primaries to get his opinion on the election and I asked him who he was supporting. He told me he was all for Romney or Giuliani because he said they were competent executives.
When I told him that I thought McCain would probably win the nomination, he spat out Rush's talking point about how McCain would destroy the Republican party. I laughed and said that was ridiculous.
I had forgotten this had happened until it became clear that Rush was hyping McCain's selection of Sarah Palin.
Remarkably, the transcript from January 15th is still on Rush's Website:
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Mark in Standish, Michigan, I really appreciate your holding on. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hello, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: Sorry to deviate from your monologue for just a minute, but you had a woman call yesterday that just frosted me to no end that if either Huckabee or McCain won the nomination she was going to sit the election out.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: People like her, I coined a term, a call them TV Republicans, and it doesn't stand for television, it stands for tunnel vision, because they need to take the blinders off and see the bigger picture. If they sit out the general election, the Democrat wins it by default, whichever one of the Three Stooges wins it. Guess what? In the next four years, there's going to be probably one, maybe two Supreme Court vacancies come up. Do they really want one of the three bozos over there appointing the next two Supreme Court justices? Is Clinton gonna appoint another Ginsburg, or is she going to do another Scalia? Is Obama going to appoint another Justice Thomas or is he going to do somebody like Breyer or Stevens? Do they really want a liberal appointing the next two Supreme Court justices? They need to take the blinders off, Rush. They need to look at the bigger vision and quit being Tunnel Vision Republicans.
RUSH: I understand what you're saying. I hate to tell you this, but she's not alone. I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party, it's going to change it forever, be the end of it. A lot of people aren't going to vote. You watch.
END TRANSCRIPT
What a difference a few months make. McCain locks up the nomination as expected and everyone on the right gets on board McCain's bus because Obama has to be stopped.
Now, with the Palin fiasco unraveling before us, Rush Limbaugh's words are proving to be true in ways nobody could have accurately predicted.